(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and, in particular, to a liquid crystal display device having a so-called direct backlight.
(2) Related Art Statement
So-called direct backlights are used in liquid crystal display devices for large-scale liquid crystal display panels.
The light source used as a backlight is a rod light source, such as cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) or external electrode fluorescent lamps (EEFL), or a dot light source, such as LED's.
From among these, EEFL's have increasingly been used, because fluorescent lamps to be controlled are aligned and thus easy to assemble.
Concretely, a number of EEFL's; that is, fluorescent lamps, are uniformly provided in parallel in a plane facing a liquid crystal display panel, and these fluorescent lamps are supported by a base (lower frame) in a housing where a reflective sheet is provided on the inner surface via electrode supports.
The electrode supports are formed as pairs: one on either side of the base, on the short sides.
These electrode supports are provided integrally with at least a number of electrode fixtures, each of which pinches an electrode of one EEFL and an electrode connecting body for connecting and supporting these electrode fixtures, and formed by press processing a metal plate.
That is to say, the electrode fixtures are formed of a branched member for pressing the facing sides of each electrode of the EEFL, by cutting out an electrode fixture from a metal plate in plane form together with the above described electrode connecting body, and at the same time, bending the above descried electrode fixture up from the above described electrode connecting body.
A liquid crystal display device having such a configuration is disclosed in the following Patent Document 1, for example.
(Patent Document 1) Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2005-347259 (Corresponding U.S. Application US2005/0265047 A1)